Forcing smokers to give up tobacco and go cold turkey was an act of cruelty on the part of Cooperative Governance Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, counsel for the Fair-Trade Independent Tobacco Association (FITA) told the Pretoria High Court yesterday.
“To force people to go cold turkey is an act of cruelty,” Arnold Subel SC submitted to a full bench of the court, adding that the entjie ban amounted to “taking a sledge hammer to beat people into submission”.
Subel said the minister had displayed complete disregard for the enormous emotional and physiological strain imposed on those who smoked in an “already stressful enough” situation created by the Coronavirus crisis, and its impact on the lives of citizens.
He added that there was no realistic prospect of people quitting smoking, as confirmed by surveys on the subject, and that this was where the minister’s basis for the continued, indefinite ban imposed as part of lockdown regulations came apart.
He said unless Dlamini-Zuma could eradicate the habit, she could not achieve her aim of preventing hospitals being overrun by a hypothetical one percent of all smokers with Covid-19 symptoms requiring intensive care treatment.
UNDER FIRE: Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma
However, the minister’s lawyer, Advocate Marumo Moerane SC, argued that emerging medical literature showed that smoking led to more severe symptoms.
Subel argued that medical literature was inconclusive, and that while the WHO had urged smokers to quit, it didn't recommend that nations ban smoking.
Botswana was the only other nation to impose an entjie ban.
Moerane said the ban had worked to some extent as some smokers who could not easily get their hands on entjies had quit.
‘Ban on entjies is an act of cruelty’. Picture: Alexas_Fotos/Pixabay
Dlamini-Zuma previously explained that because the poor rolled and shared cigarettes, smoking could accelerate transmission in townships.
Subel said the minister failed to credit citizens with much intelligence, and that people were more at risk of infection through contaminated cellphones.
Judgement has been reserved.
Judge Dunstan Mlambo said the ruling would be delivered expeditiously, via email to the parties.